Nintendo Banning Pirated Copies of Pokemon Sun and Moon
By Maxwell Jeffery 17 November 2016
With just one more day until the release of Pokemon Sun and Moon, Nintendo ensure that all those who played leaked versions of the games will be punished severely.
Pokemon Sun and Moon releases tomorrow, and for all those who have stayed firmly away from the leaked copies that appeared last week, Nintendo will be offering its full range of online features for fans to enjoy. Those players who gave into the temptation and played early however, will not be so lucky.
Players who downloaded the pirated copies of Pokemon Sun and Moon are now reportedly having their handheld devices banned from all of Nintendo’s online services, according to claims online. As spotted on Kotaku, users who claim to have downloaded the hacked version of the latest games in the Pokemon franchise are now unable to play online any longer.
Not only this, but general online functions such as the Nintendo eShop have also stopped working, suggesting that Nintendo had brought down the ban-hammer on their device altogether. This was later confirmed by an official statement from the Big N itself:
“As a result of a number of Nintendo 3DS users using unauthorized versions of several games, and connecting to the official game servers in violation of our terms of service, these users’ Nintendo 3DS systems that stored the unauthorized game code have been banned from Nintendo’s online network effective immediately.”
Nintendo has not announced whether these bans will be for any specific period of time, or whether they will be permanent, but it wouldn’t be surprising if the company followed in Blizzard’s footsteps and kept the users banned forever in order to set an example to those who would consider stealing software. There have been a lot of leaks in the run up to Sun and Moon‘s release, but the full game being online for free means that a lot of Pokemon fans will have had the events of the games spoiled for them, either intentionally or otherwise.
Other notable leaks include the full data-mining of the game’s demo, a process that revealed every new Pokemon present in the game, as well as a range of other features. While not stealing any Nintendo property, searching through the game’s files did reveal a lot of new information, including details on the most recently-revealed Alola forms and Ultra Beasts, that users wouldn’t have received until much closer to Sun and Moon‘s release date.
Do you think this is a fair punishment for those who played the leaked copies of the game, Ranters? Leave us a comment and let us know.
Pokemon Sun and Moon will be available on November 18th, exclusively for Nintendo 3DS.
